Forests are a nutritional bounty - virtual natural supermarkets for 1 billion of the world's poorest people. And as the world's population is expected to balloon to 9 billion people by 2050, it is imperative that we figure out how to feed the global population while maintaining the world's very important forest cover. We hope you enjoy this new multimedia feature that talks about some of the interesting ways that people around the world are promoting both forest conservation and food security.

Innovative tree-planting techniques that amp up levels of soil organic carbon, an indicator of soil quality, are being encouraged on agricultural land in West Africa and the Sahel to strengthen food security in the region.

Wild animals such as bonobos and large antelopes are being unsustainably hunted to meet overwhelming domestic demand for bushmeat. This is having serious impacts on both species diversity and rural forest communities who depend on wild sources of meat for up to 80% of the protein in their diets.

Farmers toiling the slopes of Costa Rica’s Irazu volcano are using electric fences, improved pastures and practising ‘contour farming’ -- planting crops across the slope -- in their efforts to fight soil erosion and conserve water in a region that experts have declared is “highly vulnerable” to climate change.

Our current food production model clears biodiverse forest ecosystems for agriculture, simplifying our diet so much that 98 percent of the world’s food is supplied from just 12 plant crops and 14 animal species. Experts are now concerned that this simple diet is actually hurting our health and that of our environment.

Forests and tress must be considered essential in global food security and dietary diversity, according to a major new report. Forests, Trees and Landscapes for Food Security and Nutrition: A Global Assessment Report was released at the UN Forum on Forests in New York. Sixty of the world’s leading forestry scientists contributed to the report (several of them from the Center for International Forestry Research (CIFOR) ) contributed to the report, which was coordinated by the International Union of Forest Research Organisations (IUFRO) . The report looks at the value of forests, which provide food for nearly one in six – almost one billion people - around the globe.

Can we feed an ever-larger population without degrading forests and other natural resources? New research is investigating alternative ways of producing food with minimal damage to fragile ecosystems. To that end, CIFOR is aggregating information to provide an overview of where “landscapes approaches” to food production have been successful and where they failed — and we need your help.

BOGOR, Indonesia (16 April 2012)_Scientists are hoping to strike a cultural chord with Amazonian forest communities by combining in-depth research with traditional stories, songs and recipes as a way to promote forest conservation and food security.

Just planting a few mango trees in and around different food crops is proving to be an extremely effective agricultural system – improving food security, livelihoods, local land ownership, poverty alleviation and other developmental needs in the Padma floodplain of Bangladesh, shows new research.

The stories, photos and videos produced as part of this feature all have Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommerical-Share Alike License. Media are welcome to use this content with appopriate attribution.